By Will Marshall and Ben Ritz
France has one of the most generous — and fiercely guarded — welfare states in the Western world. No one knows that better than President Emmanuel Macron, who recently won a six-year battle to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64.
That may not sound draconian to Americans since the normal retirement age for Social Security is 67. But in France, Macron’s move has ignited a furious wave of violent protests and paralyzing strikes that have shut down railways and airports and left mountains of uncollected garbage festering in the streets of Paris.
There’s a warning here for U.S. policymakers, who also confront ballooning costs of a public retirement and health system designed when there were many more young workers per retiree. Last Friday, Social Security’s and Medicare’s trustees warned that major parts of both programs will run out of money within a decade.
